It's Been An Honour
by Seyek
Summary: Members of the Virginia National Guard, 14th Battalion, move to rescue civilians from a school besieged by the dead. Please read and review.


*** This was written quickly while I was bored, not the best quality and I didn't really edit it. If anyone is actually interested in it, I might go through and re-write it into some that may be a little more coherent and paints a better picture of whats happening***

The black hawks thundered overhead, miniguns letting loose a torrent of fire into the surging crowds below. The school was almost overrun, its barred windows could only withstand so much, and thousands of dead battered against them desperate for the living flesh within. The side doors open, soldiers of the 14th battalion, Virginia National Guard raised their weapons to their shoulders and joined in the fury. The miniguns soon ran dry, leaving hundreds of torn and shredded bodies in their wake. Yet it did little, for these creatures were no longer human, and far too many of them continued to move, ever onward to their prey. Upon the roof could be seen a handful of volunteers and police officers, fighting desperately to buy time. They let loose with pistols, shotguns, and hunting rifles. Dead after dead fell to the ground, some rose again, others stayed down, but for every one that fell another ten surged forward in its place. The whole city had fallen, and every man, woman, and child that had died in the holocaust of cannibalism rose again in the ranks of their attackers.

"Set us down!" the platoon commander ordered.

The lead pilot complied, the miniguns stood silent, but the soldiers kept up the fire, showering searing pieces of metal upon the horde. Those upon the roof were no trained soldiers, mere civilians or a beat cop at best, but they knew enough to get low and out of the way of the inbound choppers. The school was large, its roof wide and clear, and the four black hawks had no trouble setting themselves down. They disgorged their cargo, four squads of eight troops each. They hunched over, wary of the choppers' spinning blades. A couple of the locals approached them, one from the hatch that lead back into the building, and one from the firing line that tried to fight back the dead.

"Mr. Lang, I'm the principal here," the man from the hatch said stretching out his hand.

"Constable Evans," the other man, a youngish looking officer stated, his hand also proferred.

"Captain Lewis, National Guard, heard you needed an evac!" the captain replied, taking each hand in turn.

"It's a mess inside. Some of tho-those things, came in, not everyone made it. Only some of the students came in to start with, a couple had their families come later to take them out of the city, a couple other families stayed...those parents are the ones up here on the roof mostly. We got the ones that came locked away in a couple of the classrooms. We've barricaded as best we could, but I think their already starting to break through!" Mr. Lang said, he looked exhausted, but determined, likely to get those students who still lived out of this nightmare.

"Evans, I'll keep a section back here to help out, the rest of us will head down and bring everyone up, providing rearguard along the way. I need you to organize your people up here and coordinate under Sergeant Davies' command," the officer looked back to his own people who were assembled in their squads around him, awaiting their orders. "Davies! You and your squad are staying up here, you're in charge of holding this roof and keeping those things back as best you can. Rest of you, on me, we're going in to grab the civies!"

Waiting only for a nod from the police officer the Captain motioned for the principal to lead the way. He headed down the maintenance hatch first, Davies followed, and soon the work closet was filling with heavily armed soldiers. Lang opened the door, leading them into the school proper. They were on the second floor, down the hall they could see an open area, likely the main lobby of the school. The captain took note of three people manning a makeshift barricade at the main stairs, an officer with a shotgun, and two others, both also armed. They looked scared and had their weapons up.

"Second squad, peel off and reinforce that barricade!" the captain ordered as they headed past the men and down another hallway.

The principal lead them to a room and opened the door. A couple dozen teenagers and adults stood waiting. As he took stock of the civilians the sounds of automatic weapons fire blasted down from the direction of the lobby. "You have to get them out of here Captain! Now!" Lang screamed.

"Shit," the Captain gritted his teeth before barking out orders to the huddled group packed into the classroom. "Follow this man to the roof, there are helicopters waiting to take you out of here!" He grabbed one of his Bravo Fire Team leader and left the evacuation to him, choosing to step back into the hall and find out what was happening at the main stairs.

It was only as he stepped out he realized he had missed the sounds of the approaching dead, for they rounded the corner of the hall, coming from the direction _opposite_ the stairs. As soon as the first of them revealed themselves completely he fired. Others around him did the same, a fusilliade of rounds ripped apart the corner and sent several of the walking corpses crumbling. They had learned before to aim for the head, but the quick arrival of their hunters paniced them and several of the guardsmen had let loose on burst. "Aimed fire only! Aim for the head!" the Captain roared, letting loose more rounds.

He took his fire team, and third squad and headed forward, determined to beat back these opponents before they could get anywhere the evacuees. Bravo team was leading the group out, Lang had collapsed into an incoherent mess at the site of the advancing corpses being put down by the soldiers. The corpses had only hours been his students, teenagers whose care and safey had been his responsibility. The Captain ignored him, there were already enough people to worry about, one mentally collapsed school beauracrat was unimportant at this point. He and his troops rounded the corner the dead were coming from, they noticed another stairwell at the end of the hall, the dead came in through their. It only stood to reason that if there was stairwell here, there were others like it around the school. The main stairs were but one way up.

"Foxtrot, hold this corner! Alpha, Echo, stay with me!" The Captain lead his now reduced force back to the main stairs. He caught the tail end of the civilians under escort heading down the other hall to the ladder that lead up to the roof. At the main stairs he could see the three men from before firing wildly, and his own troops lined up along the railing overlooking the first floor, adding their weapons to the fray. The ones charging for the stairs weren't students, but everyday people, so not only had the classrooms containing the school's dead been broken out of, but the main doors had been breached and the thousands that were outside were now coming in. "Grenades!" The captain yelled as he pulled a frag and tossed into the advancing mass. One grenade would do little good, but almost twenty of them sending shrapnel every which way would be bound to rip through a few dead heads.

The explosions almost shook the building, the concussion could be felt through the floors and walls. Rising back from the crouching cover they had taken after letting fly their explosives, second squad opened up with their twin SAWs, crisscossing their fire down the stairs to keep the monsters at bay. The riflemen continued their firing, with grenadiers tossing the occasional 40 millimeter into the crowd. More fire came from the direction of the hatch and the Captain had no choice but to respond to the new threat there. He charged down, his remaining men at his back, and spotted Bravo team kneeling four abreast fighting back another horde. The Captain had been right about the additional stairwells. He motioned for Echo team to help the remaining civilians up the ladder as his own team lent their fire from delta.

The added firepower helped, and it bought time enough for the civilians to get out of the hall and into the maintenance room. That meant most were atop the school now. "Fall Back!" the Captain ordered, his own Alpha team holding the line as Bravo fell back. "Bravo, get Foxtrot, their holding the far corner, then bring second squad back on the way, we're getting out of here!"

Bravo moved to comply and as they approached the lobby they came face to face with more of their enemy. The building was a figure eight, with all the halls leading back to the lobby, obviously too many had crowded the fast path to the living, and others had taken the longer route to loop back around. Second squad had been too busy with the ones coming up the stairs to notice, and now one bit into the arm of Bravo team's leader, Sergeant Major Irving. He roared as he used his bitten arm to beat back the creature attacking him, he let his carbine drop, bringing up his siderarm with his free hand and puting a round into his attacker's skull. He stepped back, his squad firing wildly at point blank to keep the things at bay while their leader stepped back out of their reach. They were cut off from second squad, and the screams coming from the far hall made them wonder if Foxtrot even still lived.

"Second squad! Watch your flanks!" The wounded Sergeant Major yelled, as he continued to fire away with his pistol.

The soldiers of Second Squad had been holding the stairs, just barely, and now they faced a swarm from both sides, and were cutoff from escape. They panicked, unleashing a torrent of automatic fire into the crowds, most of it ineffective, blowing away limbs or ripping into torsos to do little but slow the relentless advance of their attackers. The Captain and his team were already being pushed back to the maintenance room, and couldn't even hold their own. Bravo was too few in number to clear a path for second squad, now besieged on all sides.

As their frantic defence grew more desperate, they had forgotten the stairs for a precious few seconds. All it took for the dead to come surging forward. The three original men were grabbed first, the dead biting and tearing into them, their screams lasted only for a few seconds, but each was an agony no man should ever suffer. Second squad was overwhelmed, their M16s were long and unwieldly, their attempts to use them as clubs failed. They were dragged down, one by one, their bodies used as a food for the insatiable hunger of the undead horrors that came over them.

"Back to the roof!" The Captain roared, knowing it was too late for the rest of his men. They had done their jobs, bought time for the innocent to get to the roof. The remaining eight soldiers rushed into the maintenance closet, their machine gunners each standing just inside, pouring endless fire into the doorway to keep the dead back. One by one the troops climbed to safety, only to be greeted by screams and a sudden, massive concussion blasted them all. The Captain rushed up next, as he came to he noticed hell had unleashed itself upon the roof as well. Some of the civilians must have had bites from before, they hadn't had time to check them. Two of the helicopters had lifted, one had the dead clinging to its skids, reaching for the sweet flesh of its passengers. Some of the soldiers on the rooftop fired upwards, trying to bring them down and let the helicopter escape. The shots were difficult, the dead unbalance it and it pitched wildly, but kept in the air. The other must have not been so lucky, for it had crashed back down, shattering apart the wall and leaving a pile of burning rubble and wreckage that gave the dead a way up.

Some of the civilians were still trying to get on the helicopters, the soldiers were holding them back unsure of what to do. They looked to their Captain. He looked back, gave a quick nod before turning to open fire on the advancing horde. They rushed the roof, not only dead and seeking butcher and consume every living thing in their path, their run through the wreckage had set them alight, giving another threat if they got too close. The soldiers holding back the remaining civilians moved out of the way, even the machine gunners abandoned their birds, giving the extra seats to those they had been charged to rescue. The civilians boarded, only a couple of officers remained, and the two remaining overloaded helicopters started to lift away. The third chopper already in the air had shaken off its unwanted passengers and it awaited its two compatriots before thundering off into the distance. The Remaining soldiers of Bravo and Alpha had made it to the roof, dropping a grenade down the hatch for good measure. Now the remaining soldiers, 13 of them in all, with three officers, steadily backed away from the advancing horde. The fire they spewed forth was brutal, punishing, it ripped apart the dead and sent one after another to the ground, but more and more came forward.

The Captain's fire stopped, as the hand of his lifelong friend and comrade, Sergeat Major Irving, grabbed his shoulder. Irving looked sick, only then did the Captain realize he had been bitten. "They've cleared this side of the building, to get into the school or come up that makeshift ramp, you and everyone else can jump down, its not too far, some of your might make it. I'll buy you a few seconds,"

"Luke, wait! Don't-" the Captain tried to plead.

"Do it goddamnit!" The sergeant Major roared, before charging into the advancing crowd, a live grenade with the pins pulled and spoons off in each hand.

"Everyone! Jump!" the Captain yelled as he turned and leapt over the edge. He had just enough time to see his friend go up in the detonation of twin fragmentation grenades, before he went tumbling thirty feet to the ground below.

He heard some thing break, or more accurately, multiple things break, as he hit the ground. The pain was excruciating, but he was alive. Not everyone had jumped, he heard them scream as they finally succumb to the monsters above. He looked around, a couple had made it relatively okay, they were in pain, but on their feet and able to move. he quickly found one of them, Corporal Mustaf, and gave him his last orders. "Mustaf! take everyone, and get the fuck out of here, I'll buy you time!"

The dead had noticed them, and were coming for them. They came from all around, but thankfully this direction was opposite of the downtown core and the main infected area. The horde was coming from the opposite direction, and they might just have a chance. The captain raised his weapon, lined up his sight, and start firing. One by one they fell, as he heard Mustaf shouting out commands to the handful of survivors. Another jumper crawled towards him, a pistol in hand, his arm was broken, and at least one leg too. He propped himself up against the Captain's back.

"I got you covered sir," he managed to say, raising his pistol and joining the fight.

"And I got you troop," the captain muttered, emptying his mag. He reached for another, he was out. The soldier's pistol ran dry soon too.

"Got any grenades sir?"

"One" the captain replied, pulling out the frag.

"It's been an honour to serve sir"

"It's been an honour to lead," the pin was pulled, and a few short seconds later and it was over.


End file.
